John F. Kennedy Quotes / Quotations

A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.Quotation of John F Kennedy

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.Quotation of John F Kennedy

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.Quotation of John F Kennedy

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - and in fact we have forgotten.Quotation of John F Kennedy

A revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough - but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability.Quotation of John F Kennedy

A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Today's military rejects include tomorrow's hard-core unemployed.Quotation of John F Kennedy

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"Quotation of John F Kennedy

All this will not be finished in the first hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.Quotation of John F Kennedy

America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.Quotation of John F Kennedy

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.Quotation of John F Kennedy

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I'm the only person between Nixon and the White House.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.Quotation of John F Kennedy

For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder.Quotation of John F Kennedy

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I don't think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I hear it said that West Berlin is militarily untenable - and so was Bastogne, and so, in fact, was Stalingrad. Any danger spot is tenable if men - brave men - will make it so.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I hope that no American will waste his franchise and throw away his vote by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I know there is a God - I see the storm coming and I see his hand in it - if he has a place then I am ready - we see the hand.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I look forward to a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I think 'Hail to the Chief' has a nice ring to it.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.Quotation of John F Kennedy

I'm always rather nervous about how you talk about women who are active in politics, whether they want to be talked about as women or as politicians.Quotation of John F Kennedy

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.Quotation of John F Kennedy

If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill a president of the United States, he can do it. All he must be prepared to do is give his life for the president's.Quotation of John F Kennedy

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.Quotation of John F Kennedy

If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.Quotation of John F Kennedy

In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.Quotation of John F Kennedy

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Israel was not created in order to disappear - Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.Quotation of John F Kennedy

It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.Quotation of John F Kennedy

It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Khrushchev reminds me of the tiger hunter who has picked a place on the wall to hang the tiger's skin long before he has caught the tiger. This tiger has other ideas.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans - born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Let's not talk so much about vice. I'm against vice in all forms.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don't want them to become politicians in the process.Quotation of John F Kennedy

My brother Bob doesn't want to be in government - he promised Dad he'd go straight.Quotation of John F Kennedy

My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it till now.Quotation of John F Kennedy

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.Quotation of John F Kennedy

My God, in this job he's got the nerve of a burglar.Quotation of John F Kennedy

No one has been barred on account of his race from fighting or dying for America, there are no white or colored signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be a s big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Sure it's a big job; but I don't know anyone who can do it better than I can.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The best road to progress is freedom's road.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie: deliberate, continued, and dishonest; but the myth: persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The human mind is our fundamental resource.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The tax on capital gains directly affects investment decisions, the mobility and flow of risk capital... the ease or difficulty experienced by new ventures in obtaining capital, and thereby the strength and potential for growth in the economy.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The three of us have been alone for such a long time. We welcome a fourth person.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The United States has to move very fast to even stand still.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.Quotation of John F Kennedy

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.Quotation of John F Kennedy

There are many people in the world who really don't understand-or say they don't-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!Quotation of John F Kennedy

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.Quotation of John F Kennedy

There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.Quotation of John F Kennedy

To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes... can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.Quotation of John F Kennedy

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.Quotation of John F Kennedy

Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.Quotation of John F Kennedy

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.Quotation of John F Kennedy

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came.Quotation of John F Kennedy

We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.Quotation of John F Kennedy

We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.Quotation of John F Kennedy

We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.Quotation of John F Kennedy

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.Quotation of John F Kennedy

We prefer world law in the age of self-determination to world war in the age of mass extermination.Quotation of John F Kennedy

We stand today on the edge of a new frontier - the frontier of the 1960's - a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils - a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.Quotation of John F Kennedy

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.Quotation of John F Kennedy

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.Quotation of John F Kennedy

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.Quotation of John F Kennedy

When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.Quotation of John F Kennedy

You never know what's hit you. A gunshot is the perfect way.Quotation of John F Kennedy